Reflection 2016 – My Writing Year

Post date: 29th December 2016

Wow, I cannot believe that 2016 is nearly over already. It doesn’t seem that long ago that I was preparing for the start of 2016. I had many goals for 2016: I wanted to have a submission ready novel, I wanted to start writing my next novel, I wanted to shrink my short story editing pile, I wanted to finish editing my first supernatural comedy novella, and I wanted to write the second supernatural comedy novella of my series. Sadly, I was unable to complete my goals. I’m mostly disappointed about not having a submission ready novel – I allowed too many things to get in the way of my novel.

2016 was a difficult year for my writing. I struggled to stay motivated with my projects. My writing goals also changed during the year, I’m working on another novella (not the supernatural comedy one), I’m learning how to write plays, and I’m also planning to do a flash fiction story collection.

However, even though I’ve not done well on my individual writing projects, I have managed to do a lot with my writing group. I finished the World War Two stories for my writing group anthology (it’s at the final editing stage), I’ve taken part in book reading events, I’ve gone on many trips with the group, for example, the Pow Wow Festival of Writing, the Museum of Cannock Chase, the Sandwell Archives, a Sikh temple, Dudley Library’s Writers Networking morning, and I’ve gone to the theatre four times, plus so much more. 2016 has been an exciting year for the Oldbury Writing Group, and I can’t wait to see what 2017 has in store for us.

Even though 2016 hasn’t gone to plan, I have still achieved a lot. I have won a competition, and one of my stories will appear in an anthology. I’ve also kept submitting stories. And my biggest achievement was standing in front of an audience and reading out my work. So yeah, it wasn’t all bad, but I do hope to do better in 2017. I have many plans, and my main one is to finish editing my novel. I’ve worked too long on it, and I will never be a published author if it’s not finished.

Next year, I will fight to get my writing mojo back. I can no longer afford to waste time. 2017 will be my year.